Summary And Applications

This experiment introduced you to a popular and useful device to know about. a programmable battery charger. With this basic circuit and program you can go on to create other, more exotic battery charging circuits and programs for yourself and, quite possibly, for a company that hires you. As we mentioned before, there are hundreds if not thousands of battery chargers on the market, each with its own particular niche in the marketplace. The key, then, is to find the right rechargeable battery with the right niche application and then design your next programmable battery charger around that need. Here are some ideas.

Real World Examples

Marine batteries, that is, rechargeable batteries that are built for heavy-duty marine or boating applications, require specialized charging. This is indicated when you see written all over the battery the words "deep cycle". So what does deep cycle mean? In short, a deep cycle battery demands more than just a "surface charge" which is what your car battery generally gets as it motors along the highway. A deep cycle marine battery needs a special charging cycle to allow it to produce more amp-hours of capacity in order to start powerful diesel engines, as well as run on-board inverters that "quietly" power AC appliances like lights, refrigerators and air conditioners while at anchor. So, if you take the time to examine what a deep cycle battery needs in terms of charging, you may come away with ideas to improve on a particular charger design. That gets into engineering applications, which is where we hope you'll apply the knowledge of what you've just learned.

Another real world battery charging application involves the fast charging of model airplane batteries. Most radio controlled model airplanes, and for that matter radio controlled boats and cars, use rechargeable batteries that move servos to control the rudder, ailerons and wheels. Of great area of interest to this vast hobby segment is an inexpensive (cheap!!) but effective and reliable fast-charge battery charger. When batteries go dead, the hobbyist wants to recharge them in a hurry. And it seems that every year a new quick charger comes to market to embrace the new battery technologies. So here's another opportunity to use what you've learned to design the next, World's-greatest, lightning-fast, super-cheap battery charger.

And if you haven't guessed by now, you have just built and programmed a battery charger that can charge the NiCad version of all those regular alkaline batteries that you just use and throw away. Think of the money you'll save, not to mention that you can now monitor HOW your NiCad batteries are being charged. Then if you're really enthused, you can modify both the circuit and code to adapt the battery charger to different types other than just NiCads.

More Information

Here's where to find more information on batteries and battery chargers: www.learnonline .com/ewre.html.

You can now recondition your old batteries at home and bring them back to 100 percent of their working condition. This guide will enable you to revive All NiCd batteries regardless of brand and battery volt. It will give you the required information on how to re-energize and revive your NiCd batteries through the RVD process, charging method and charging guidelines.